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MAGYAR TARTALOMSZOLGÁLTATÓK EGYESÜLETE AND INDEX.HU ZRT
v. HUNGARY– SEPARATE OPINION
CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGE KŪRIS
1. Somewhat similarly to Delfi AS v. Estonia (GC] (no. 64569/09,
ECHR 2015), which was, in the Court’s own words, “the first case in which
the Court has been called upon to examine a complaint of this type
[regarding the liability of Internet providers for the contents of comments]”,
the present case is the first in which the principles set forth in Delfi AS, to
the balanced reasoning in which I subscribe, have been called upon to be
applied and, at the same time, tested.
2. Together with my colleagues, I voted for the finding of a violation of
Article 10 of the Convention. The vulgar and offensive comments dealt with
in the present case were value judgments of no value whatsoever; however,
they did not incite violence, did not stoop to the level of hate speech and, at
least in this most important respect, could not a priori be viewed by the
applicants as “clearly unlawful”. This is essentially what distinguishes these
comments from the hate speech dealt with in Delfi AS. This decisive
difference is rightly noted in, inter alia, paragraph 64 of the judgment.
Thus, although it results in the opposite conclusion to that found in Delfi AS,
the present judgment does not, in my opinion, depart from the Delfi AS
principles.
3. Consequently, this judgment should in no way be employed by
Internet providers, in particular those who benefit financially from the
dissemination of comments, whatever their contents, to shield themselves
from their own liability, alternative or complementary to that of those
persons who post degrading comments, for failing to take appropriate
measures against these envenoming statements. If it is nevertheless used for
that purpose, this judgment could become an instrument for (again!)
whitewashing the Internet business model, aimed at profit at any cost.
If, alas, such a regrettable turn of events should occur, those in the
Internet business would not stand alone in their moral responsibility for
further contamination of the public sphere. And we cannot pretend that we
do not know who – if not personally, still certainly institutionally – would
have to share that responsibility. If things develop in that direction, then
Judge Boštjan Zupančič’s pointed remark in his concurring opinion in Delfi
AS would become even more pertinent (emphasis added):
“I do not know why the national courts hesitate in adjudicating these kinds of
cases and affording strict protection of personality rights and decent compensation